_Babies Make Pals Before Talking!Infants still too young to speak know how to joke and make friends, claim researchers at Australia's Charles Sturt University who have spent two years filming the behaviour of KindyTots.

Academics at Charles Sturt University are studying how KindyTots interact with other babies while in kindy using footage obtained from tiny cameras strapped to their heads!

_The study affords a "baby's eye view" of the world in which even simple objects such as spoons appear oversized,said Jennifer Sumsion, foundation professor of early childhood at the university.

But it also shows that kindytots aged from six months to18 months use sophisticated but subtle non-verbal means to make friends and make each other laugh. "We were very, very surprised to see just how sophisticated they were in terms of their social skills, their helping skills, in making sure they were inviting other children to be part of their group," Sumsion said.

Sumsion added that kindytots interacted with each other by making eye contact and with hand gestures and humour. They used "little social games that you wouldn' t necessarily see unless you were looking very closely", she said.